The Beginning of the End is Beginning

Burnout Paradise was released last week on the Playstation Network store for $30 dollars, half of what the game retailed for when it came out a few months ago as a disc based game for 360/PS3. This is surely a sign of things to come. Used game sales are killing any money a publisher hopes to make down the road after the game has been out for awhile. Not to mention money gained from not having to pay for packaging and not having to compete for shelf space. Of course at the recent Gamestop conference (the store that happens to be the #1 promoter of used games) a Gamestop VP said that Digital Distribution will not be a threat until 2020. At first sight that might look at ridiculous considering it’s working fine right now but maybe in 2020 we will see the extinction of game stores. Think back to 8 years ago, hardly anyone had a cable modem now look at us. The internet and its technologies are growing fast and with all the advantages Digital Distribution offers to publishers they would be stupid not to jump on this train.

What does this mean for us consumers? Mostly good things unless you happen to be really attached to those boxes and discs. Since the publisher is avoiding a lot of costs by skipping the Game stores we will most likely see a price cut on the standard video game price. However this generation of consoles may be ill equipped for this transition which is one of the main reasons why we most likely won’t see the jump from physical to digital until next gen. The average 360 has a 20 gb hard drive which means if you download a lot of Rock Band songs and demos you’re already most likely close to filling that drive up. The PS3 is probably in the best position with easily swappable hard drives and the average disk size being somewhere between 40 and 60 gigs. Nintendo’s Wii isn’t equipped to handle its virtual console ports or small selection of Wiiware titles with its extremely tiny drive, let alone full sized games. Next Generation we maybe be seeing systems with mega sized hard drives to be future proof for the digital distribution revolution.

While technology may be limiting us to disc games for the rest of this generation who’s to say how much more will actually be done on the digital front. Xbox Arcade had a resurgence of digital games this summer and Burnout Paradise might only be the beginning for the Playstation Network. Everyone should be excited for this new turn of how games are purchased because in the long run it will be better for everyone. Publishers will be making more money allowing for more games and consumers will be paying less allowing for more games to be purchased. The only one who should be upset is Joe Schmo trying to get you to preorder Mario Party 10 while trying to make you trade in Mario Party 9.

Tomorrow is Blood Sugar Sex Magik full Album DLC for Rock Band, Buy it!

It’s Fall.

It definitely fall in the media world because in these last two weeks I’ve been playing/watching more new stuff then was released as a whole in the first half of summer. Quick Rundown:

Spore – More like bore amirite? No but seriously, the spore development team (or maybe Will Wright himself) is like a morbidly obese person trying to cook. They take all their favorite games throw them in a pot and hope for the end product to be the sum of all the goodness that was thrown in. In actuality the end result doesn’t taste good at all; in fact it tastes like shit. Although it introduces some new technology through its invisible background game sharing Spore still was a disappointment. Hopefully they use the technology introduced here and put it in a good game.

Man I really Should install Photoshop.

Crysis: Warhead – It’s Crysis that runs and plays better than the original. Haven’t really played it that much but it’s good to see PC gaming is alive (and well?).

Rock Band 2 – It’s RB1 with a much improved interface and a lot of awesome songs on the disc. Guitar Hero: World Snore (Ho-Ho another twist of the title into referencing my state of boredom) has its work cut out for it.

 

Star Wars: Force Unleashed – For some reason this game really reminds me of Shadows of the Empire even though they don’t share much in common besides the fact that they’re both third person Star Wars action games. Really great story, in fact they should’ve taken the few important scenes from episode 2, merge them into episode 1, make episode 3 episode 2 and made this game episode 3. Would’ve been great I tell ya. As far as gameplay goes, way too repetitive with almost every trick getting old by the end of the first hour or so. Atleast the repetitiveness isn’t that big of an issue considering the game is around five hours in length. Whoops. Definitely rent it if you like Star Wars at all.

 

Armored Core: For Answer – While AC4 was plagued by long loading times and missions shorter than said loading times I still found it to be an enjoyable experience. Unfortunately no one else did and this game will forever remain overlooked. This is a real shame because it’s really improved from AC4 and is shaping up to be basically shadow of colossus + Giant Robots, which is a winning combination. Not to mention the Soundtrack and Visuals are superb, haven’t checked out online coop yet but I hope people are still online when I get to it. Zone of the Enders might just be dethroned for me.

 

 

Megaman 9 – Shamefully I never really played any of the older Megamans that much (played one on gameboy, way too hard at the time) so won’t make any direct comparisons but…game is ridiculously fun and challenging! Capcom was brilliant for making a game in this retro style and they did it perfectly as well, it really feels like a NES game with a hint of modern gameplay twists. Can’t wait to dig deeper into this one and defeat the last 4 robot masters!

 

All those games in the last two weeks and I just got into the Little Big Planet beta today along with Kirby Superstar DS and Sonic: The Dark Brotherhood. Also been playing WoW feverishly in attempt to get my rogue alt to 70 before Wrathapocalypse brings destruction to the world.

Also been reading the second book in the Hitchhiker’s series The Restaurant at the End of the Universe…..if I could write half as well as Douglas Adams most of my time would be spent writing. And being a billionaire. One of the funniest books ever, was literally “LOL”ing every other page.

In TV after 30 Rock destroyed the Emmy’s, decided it would be a good idea to start watching it. One episode in and I’m loving it. Heroes continues to jump the shark with retarded plot twists, terrible script, and poor acting performances by almost everyone involved. Oh what could’ve been.

 

Crazy! Oh yeah I also got Metal Gear Solid 5.

 

 

 

 

 

Too Human, Too Conflicted

On the Eve of Too Human’s release it is not a joyous night of anticipation for the game but instead everyone is looking on at the massive train
wreck
of
review
scores. Each review while varying bit from bit in score all basically carry the same tone. That Too Human

is not a very good game in any shape or form. Message boards are set ablaze with a huge amount of discussion over how the game is being received. Many users are enjoying watching the game crash and burn even before its release although one has to wonder if this is

mostly due to the games outspoken
creator, Denis Dyack. While playing the game I couldn’t help but feel frustrated, there was interesting and innovative concepts being displayed but due to all of Dyack’s preaching they were all going to get ignored. Dyack basically made

Too Human a game that is cool to hate. Burying everything else beneath it the combat is without a doubt the center piece of this game and is fundamentally flawed in that it somehow is even more mindless then Diablo 2 while feeling nowhere near as gratifying it still has

some great ideas beneath it. The way the camera is controlled and story presentation are the two things that jump out in this game. Unfortunately they are both far from perfect and are more of a basic framework of how these two aspects of games could evolve if

tweaked a bit (major changes to the script, randomly plugging in Norse mythology doesn’t make for a compelling story). I wonder if this game was an Xbox 360 launch game with the same amount of hype (because without the hype this game would be completely swept

under the carpet) if it would be met with a lot more praise for its innovations instead of gamers cheering to see its demise. Either way I still look forward to trying out the full product and hope to see the trilogy complete itself, like I said the basic framework is there it just

needs some more time in the oven. The next week should be interesting to see if this game becomes important at all besides being known as Dyack’s massive bomb, either way I look on with anticipation.

Anyway on a lighter note, simply cannot wait for Tales of Vesparia in two weeks! Game just recently came out in Japan and is actually causing Xbox 360 to be selling out in a country that completely usually disregards the system.

Really love the demo and the characters along with the story (main reason to play RPGs for me) both seem to insanely interesting. If you know nothing about the Tales’ series I recommend watching a few
of
the
intros and some
gameplay
videos. They take the

Major complaint that most gamers have with most RPGs (slow turn based combat) and remedy it with what the series is now known for (fast paced action battle system).

Anyway back to Final Fantasy 6 for the GBA, playing it for the first time ever and I’m immensely enjoying it.

Must Buy Games Quarter 4 2008

These are my must Buy Games for the rest of 2008. If you disagree you are wrong, or just have different tastes then me.

1. Tales of Vesperia – 08/28/2008 Xbox 360 Exclusive – Just finished up Tales of the abyss last month and now I’m itching for some next gen Tales action. Demo was awesome with hands down the best cel shaded graphics I have ever seen. Hopefully the story isn’t as diluted as Abyss was with all it’s stupid in-game world terms completely comprising sentences. EX: But Luke your hyperressonance from Malkuth would lower the outer flow and become the key of Lorelei. I mean wtf? Luckily people in Japan are making comparisons’ to one piece as far as the story goes, and that’s a good thing considering one piece is one of the few good anime left.

2. Spore – 09/07/2008 PC Exclusive – I hate the Sims, I hate the idea of this game, I know will hate this game, but thanks to massive hype and a need to validate my expensive WoW/Internet Playing machine I will buy this. So instead of talking about some of its supposedly great aspects, here’s overexposed Will Wright back to back with himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Yakuza 2 09/09/2008 PS2 Exclusive – The first game was absolutely amazing and everything Shenmue would’ve been if it ever made the jump from Dreamcast to PS2 –era. Supposedly this game is everything the first one was but more. Unfortunately I was one of the few people who thought the dubbing was good in the first game and now due to budget constraints it’s all subtitles. Oh well, can’t complain too much considering we’re lucky to be getting the game at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Rock Band 2 – 09/14/2008 Xbox 360 1 Month Exclusive – Rock Band 2, sequel to the greatest music game ever. Guitar Hero 4 looks ok but I think I’m covered as far as plastic rock band instruments go. Maybe next year guysL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Star Wars: Force Unleashed – 09/16/2008 Xbox 360 – Maybe it’s just because I’m so amped on Soul Calibur 4 right now but I cannot wait for this game. The Apprentice is just such a bad ass in SC4 putting Yoda and Vader to shame. Although there hasn’t been a good Star Wars light Saber games since Jedi Knight II I remain optimistic, early reports of the game have been positive as well so that’s always good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Fallout 3 – 10/10/2008 Xbox 360 – Never played the other games in the series but this looks really fun. Here’s hoping it’s a bit more streamlined then Oblivion because that game really never drew me in. Felt too much like a single player World of Warcraft for my tastes. But this one has guns and that always helps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Fable 2 – 10/21/2008 Xbox 360 Exclusive – When the first Fable came out I really couldn’t get passed the art style and thought the gameplay would be equally unappealing for me. However thanks to taking advantage of a friend who had no care for the wellbeing of his cash I got to play this game and it turned out to be quite an enjoyable experience. I was upset along with everyone else with all the features spokesman Peter Molenyux had promised to be in the game but didn’t end up making it in. Still it was quite an enjoyable game albeit a bit short. The addition of CO-OP and a slew of other features have me greatly anticipating this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Little Big Planet – 10/21/2008 PS3 Exclusive – This game looks absolutely phenomenal. Although I’m pumped at this moment to create some stages I probably will end up never touching the stage creation aspect of the game. However that most likely will not be a problem with the community full of people much more inspired than me will create hundreds upon hundreds of levels to play leaving this to be a game with unlimited potential. And if the Kratos Sack Boy is true………Amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Resistance 2 – 11/04/2008 PS3 Exclusive – Yarggggggg its resistance 2 making your ps3 relevant on the shooter front! Resistance 1 multiplayer was weak; it felt like Unreal Tournament but filled with tons of balance problems (rockets that kill you if you happen to be in the same stage as them, no thanks). A whole separate CO-OP campaign is an interesting way to solve the problem of not making your campaign less fun for players flying it solo, let’s just hope it doesn’t end up being a rush job. Because let’s face it a whole separate campaign is not cheap in the resource department. Even with a slew of new features this game will have to fight off other shooters this holiday season…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. Gears of War 2 – 11/7/2008 Xbox 360 Exclusive – Speaking of other shooters, Gears of War 2 look absolutely amazing. Having played thousands of Gears of War online multiplayer matches a sequel with more modes, weapons, executions, and balance is everything I wanted. The original GoW was also one of the best CO-OP games I have ever played and one of the few games I have actually beaten twice. Simply cannot wait for this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. Mirror’s Edge – 11/11/2008 Xbox 360 – When I first saw the premiere trailer for this I was floored. The music and the innovative emphasis on running and exploring in first person with *optional* gunplay is what did me in. When E3 came along I didn’t like what I saw anymore with the game sounding like it basically boils down to running into a room, frantically searching for a glowing red object and then running towards it when found. Dice has said that it is possible to turn off this glowing red object hint indicator yet I still remain skeptical. In this instance I really hope my feeling about this game is wrong (yet it’s still a must buy).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts – 11/14/2008 Xbox 360 Exclusive – To Be honest I never really liked the previous Banjo games but I really liked Kameo. While a lot of people really hate on Rare’s art style, Kameo is still one of the best looking games to this day. Hopefully the feeling I got from Kameo’s graphics transfers over to Banjo because that really was what made that game for me. The vehicle stuff looks interesting too but hopefully there isn’t too much collect-a-thon stuff like other Banjo games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. Left 4 Dead – 11/17/2008 PC – Zombies. CO-OP. Must-Have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14. Prince of Persia – 11/18/2008 Xbox 360 – Seriously I cannot say anything about this game that the trailer doesn’t say. The game itself has an amazing new art direction, taking a revitalization of a classic game series and pumping new life into it again. It perplexes me though that there is all this emphasis on the new CO-OP stuff but your CO-OP partner is AI only. Maybe for it to be more emotional, similar to ICO? Either way do yourself and watch the trailer if you haven’t already: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36270.html The song is Saeglopur by Sigur Ros.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15. Persona 4 – 12/09/2008 PS2 Exclusive – Wow another Must-have PS2 game. I’ve been playing nothing but Persona 3 for the last two weeks in anticipation for this and I’m happy I did. Persona 3 was a refreshing take on a tired out Genre and I’m happy even more of it will be available. The new characters, setting, and intro all look absolutely fantastic. But Atlus let’s try not to release a improved version of the game that doesn’t allow for me to export my old game save when I’m halfway through it already, even if it is priced extremely cheap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King – Q4 2008 PC Exclusive – World of Warcraft is one of the best games ever. Regardless if you devote your entire life to it or just get to level 70 and play once in awhile. The first time I did the level 1 to 60 thing was one of the best gaming experiences to be had. Blizzard has taken in all they have learned over the last few years with their MMO and has created a new class, 10 new levels, and the best zones they have ever done is going to make Wrath of the Lich King amazing. And let’s face it, Blizzard can do no wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16 Must buy games for me this Q4 2008, not including any downloadable games, surprise review score games (wouldn’t mind to see sonic become purchase worthy) and any impulse buys. Let’s say 65 bucks for each game (damn tax) $65 x 16 = $1040. Um wow. Let’s hope some games get delayed otherwise I am going to be in debt. Oh well that’s what eBay is for – making gaming money, off to play some Persona 3 before Bionic Commando goes up on XBL Marketplace in an hour.

I fail at Blogging.

Haven’t blogged in awhile, finals and the massive back log of video games don’t really help. So ill do a quick one sentence run down of every game I have been playing since last blog.

Assassin’s Creed – Entertaining game as long as you don’t play any longer than an hour or two per session due to the repetitiveness of its side quests.

Call of Duty 4 – Best single player action shooter this year (hah action shooter lets me exclude Bioshock), awesome multiplayer that rivals Halo with its addicting leveling system.

Company Of Heroes – Have not played much but the graphics and its unique game play have made a first good impression with me.

Final Fantasy Tactics PSP – Addicting as the Playstation original, new translation and cut scenes are great and actually add to this masterpiece of a game.

Halo 3 New Maps – Stand Off is the perfect variation of the Blood Gulch type map, Rat’s Nest is just plain fun, and Foundry is meh but I hear there’s some wicked forge potential in it, Must buy for any Halo fan.

Mass Effect – Great game takes my biggest complaint of KOTOR (boring battle system ftl) and ramps it up with awesome Gears of War combat.

Phoenix Wright 1 and 2 – Probably the best gaming series on the DS right now, finally beat the first one after two years of procrastinating.

Rock Band – Game of the Century, just beat the endless set list with a full band+ last night, purely sick.

Unreal Tournament 3 (PC) – Not as good as I expected basically a visual overhaul with some minor additions to Unreal2k4 and some major mode removals.

World Of Warcraft – Why am I playing this again in amidst of the densest gaming season ever?

So all those games + Finals are pretty much why I haven’t been blogging. Sorry about that with the holiday season and easier semester coming up should be able to write more. Been playing way too much WoW if anyone happens to play on Mal Ganis send me a whisper, characters are Namii and LockOnOO. Can’t wait for Christmas to play some Crysis and Nights for the Wii, also saw some DS game like shaped boxes under the tree should be good stuff. Well seeing that its 6 am will be bidding anyone who reads this adieu.

Galaxy of a Lifetime

 

Beat it on launch day, took about 7 and a half hours. Amazing, amazing game most likely my game of the year. The music, level design, the art style, all simply incredible. Assassin’s creed comes out tomorrow and although reviews are all over the place I still think it’s going to be a great game, hopefully I’ll be able to balance class work, getting more stars in galaxy, and playing it.

Mario Galaxy 120 Stars

Call of Duty 4 is amazing, possibly better than Halo 3. Every First Person Shooter needs to be 60 frames per second. How about that Luigi in Mario galaxy? Crazy stuff…

Hail to the King

 

Sorry for the short blog post, spent the whole Halloween day playing Guitar Hero 3 (Knight of Cydonia expert am beaten) and Rise of the Ninja.

Naruto Rise of The Ninja’s Forest of Death multiplayer mode is quite addictive yet so very frustrating at the same time. It took me about two hours of straight play to win 6 matches in a row effectively making me the king of the tower. I’ll post an in depth review sometime in the next few days, but this is without a doubt the game that does the best job of recreating the show. And it’s quite fun too (some minor imbalances but if you don’t run into anyone abusing them the game remains very fun).

 

“Hard work is the key to success”

I am a Gaming Minority

No new blog post over the weekend thanks to Guitar Hero 3. Just imagine how much time Rock Band is going to suck up ;[ . Anyway I’m on a crazy money saving spree with so many god dammed games coming out next month. Here are the MUST-BUYS:

 

Wow. All these games are going to be triple A (with the exception of nIghts, but I’m a fan boy who said if there was ever a sequel I’ll be there day one no matter how bad). Anyway I’m super tight on money at the wrong time so I put all my ps2 games up for sale and my WoW account (good riddance for now, when the expansion comes out I’m sure I’ll be back). I need to decide if I can make room in my budget for Naruto this week which also looks equally awesome. Maybe I should get a job. Anyway let’s talk about the topic.

When it comes to games, I like a lot of games that most people love to hate or are known as the shit in the series. Guilty pleasures if you would. I don’t know what draws me to these globally hated games but I seem to be infatuated with them.

First up is Mario Sunshine. Give me Mario Sunshine any day over its weak prequel. Sure the game was revolutionary when it came out but Mario Sunshine improves in every single regard. Ask anyone who hates this game what’s wrong with it and most of the time you’ll find they can’t come up with any reasonable arguments for it being inferior to Mario 64. OH THE NOES YOU NEED TO CLEAN AND THE HOSE TALKS!!! Who cares, the cleaning was fun and the nozzle made Mario more mobile and added moves to his repertoire. People who hate this game just let nostalgia cloud their judgment making them think Mario 64 is superior. If Mario Galaxy is as half as good as Mario Sunshine then I will be pleasantly satisfied.

While this game got great review and many fans like it it’s also seen as the weakest link in the Metal Gear Solid series. Like with Mario Sunshine many people didn’t have any good reason to hate it and blamed its lack of quality on being forced to play as Raiden instead of Solid Snake. Sure the game was overly pretentious with its plot at the end but the game had some amazing moments in it. The whole ending segment was some of the most amazing gaming moments I have ever played. Metal Gear Solid 2 also improved on Metal Gear Solid in almost every single way taking the core foundations and adding tons of new things to do. People prefer MGS3 to MGS2 but MGS2 still holds a special place in my heart today.

Every sonic game was pretty mediocre to me. The 2d games were too fast to control and didn’t require much thinking besides running to the right. Sonic Adventure 1 was a pretty good game but the fact that they forced to play 5 different characters with some of them controlling terrible and a bad camera to boot. Sonic Adventure 2 was the game to get me to love Sonic and allowed me to go back and revisit the 2d games with a new appreciation. Letting you play as both the Good and Evil side was a great feature and allowed the player to see the story from both sides. Sonic Adventure 2 is a great game and one of the greatest 3d platformers to date.

Back to Guitar Hero 3, lemme know if you enjoyed reading this.

 

How Multiplayer Games Ruined Single Player Games

    Back in a time when online gaming was a foreign concept to the majority of gamers I used to dream of playing some of my favorite games against other human opponents at any given time. During the N64/Playstation era this was a dream to most console gamers. Sure we had services like X-BAND(which hardly worked), and PC gamers were playing online for a couple years now(but who had a PC back then?) but for the majority of us we were content with playing mostly single player games or having our friends over on the weekend for some split screen action. My first online game ever was Starcraft for the Macintosh. Using my mom’s iMAC I would stay up until 4 am every night playing, making friends, and finally experiencing what I always wanted in my games. This summer was to be declared the summer of Starcraft and was the first of many summers that I would lose to online gaming. Starcraft was a huge revelation to me showing me that we didn’t have to play against stupid AI opponents over and over and that playing against humans was no longer just a very real concept but something that was really happening. The service Blizzard provided with Starcraft was almost as good as it got, being free, almost no lag at all, and the ability to play custom games with other people.

Eventually being so fascinated by Starcraft I wanted to try out more online games and my next was Unreal Tournament for the Mac. I have no idea how I chose this particular game or what compelled me to buy it but it was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made. Coming off slow paced games such as Goldeneye, Unreal Tournament was a huge mind blower for me. This game was fast paced with people jumping and strafing all around, to say the least I was intimidated. It did not help that the game was made with a 2 click mouse button in mind left click for primary fire and right click for the weapon’s alternate mode of fire. Telling people online that I was playing with a Mac usually resulted in a collective “LOL” or “Get a Real Computer Noob”. At the time I was about ten or so and the computer choices my family made was not really in my hands or up to me. I saw the potential in how good UT could be but on an underpowered Mac that could hardly process the graphics and with an underwhelming control scheme the game just was not much fun. I returned UT back to the store promising myself that I would get it as soon as I got a PC.

Luckily for me getting a PC would not be long as my birthday was coming up soon and the desire to have one was growing tremendously. My neighbor would invite me over once in awhile to play some Red Alert over LAN and I loved every single bit of it. When I went to go buy a copy for my computer I found out how limited the Mac selection of gaming really was. Having a vast selection of games unavailable to me was just unacceptable, I needed a PC. So like any other spoiled kid I begged and whined every day until my birthday when I got my very first computer (a pretty well specced gateway). I played so many games on this machine over the 5 year course I owned it and it was some of my best gaming experiences to date. Somewhere in the middle of this computer’s lifespan Sega introduced the first real online game available, Phantasy Star Online.

To be able to sit back in my bed and play online with other console players was a great feeling. This feeling would last me over 300 hours I played Phantasy Star Online and I don’t regret a single moment. The game combined epic single player moments similar to those of a Zelda game with the online play of my favorite PC games. A concept I didn’t even imagine all those years back when online play of any sort was still unimaginable. Besides this game there was no real console online multiplayer until the next major advancement made by a familiar company to me. So I went back to my PC gaming spending tons of time on games such as Counterstrike, TFC, Diablo 2, and many more. PC gaming was just so much more fun than playing against a predictable boring computer AI or having to wrangle up all your friends and split your screen into 4 little squares. Besides the occasional Final Fantasy or fighting game I rarely looked at my consoles until Microsoft entered the scene.

As my first computer was becoming completely outdated Microsoft introduced their online service Xbox Live. At first I ridiculed my friends who bought an Xbox saying that there was no reason to own it and that GameCube was so much better. That was, until I played Halo. Halo had something that most pc games completely lacked, single and multiplayer balance. Games such as Unreal Tournament offer no single player experience; just a multiplayer game with AI controlled bots to replace the human opponents you would be playing if you were online. Half Life itself barring modifications had no multiplayer at all making it a onetime experience for me. Halo however had a compelling single player with massive outdoor environments like never seen before and a competent multiplayer. Sure I knocked other console multiplayer games for being a pain to get together with all your friends just to do some gaming. But Halo had the option of LAN play with hooking your Xbox’s together so each person could have their own TV which made into some sort of mega event that was worth the hassle somehow. Halo was the ultimate example of a game that I wanted to see with online play (in fact I was propheizising that Microsoft would make a Halo 1.5 of some sort in-between the release of 1 and 2 that would just be Halo with online play, never happened unfortunately). Xbox live was cool in that it was the first time I really used microphone chat, rarely dabbling in it with Counter-Strike. Unfortunately there were no games that I really played that much besides MechAssault that is until Halo 2 was released.

Halo 2 was the game that made me forget about PC gaming for a good amount of time and for good reasons. Now on my 2^nd PC (a custom computer that was a beast of computer at the time) it came out a decent amount after UT2k4, Warcraft 3 was getting kind of boring by then, and it was easily accessible to all my friends who were not necessarily into PC gaming. Everyone I knew played Halo 2, all the friends I made at LAN parties, people from school, anyone and everyone played the online sensation that was Halo 2. The game was extremely polished, and most importantly completely ripped of the matchmaking service that was implemented in Warcraft 3. The matchmaking service would take either yourself or you and a group of friend’s rate them based on your skill and match them up automatically to a team with even skill. Not that you can blame Bungie, if it isn’t broke don’t fix it definitely applies here but was it necessary that Bungie called their service Bungie.net with Blizzard’s service being called Battle.net (making them both known as “Bnet”)? This matchmaking service was great as most gamers are put off by the irritating find your own server unpolished and unregulated type of play that all PC games use. Halo 2 led to even more great online console games and I probably would have completely forgot about my PC for a good year or two if it was not for World of Warcraft coming out in the same month (WoW being quite possibly the pinnacle of gaming for me, but that’s another topic). Looking back I have no idea how I made it through that school year, especially with a job as I don’t remember any of it except my time spent playing WoW and Halo 2.

Since WoW and Halo 2 came out we now have a WoW expansion (with another on the horizon) and Halo 3. Also the number of worthwhile PC games finally coming back to what it used to be with Unreal Tournament 3 coming out soon and plenty of others. Almost all the time I find myself playing some sort of online game and just looking at all the single player games I own that are untouched. It’s just that I don’t see the reason to play single player games anymore, sure once in awhile there’ll be a game that has to be experienced (such as the recently released Bioshock) but I find it so much more satisfying to play games with my friends or strangers online. When I look at my collection of unplayed games I see a lot of RPGs that are all identical to each other, a few forgettable single player shooters, and a bunch of play once in awhile sports games. Maybe the title of this article should have been a history of Spruchy’s gaming life but the point I really wanted to make is that single player games are truly becoming unappealing to not only me but to a lot of people out there. Even games that were made to be single player games nowadays are tacking on some multiplayer functionality onto it so the consumer is not worried by the legs the game has on it. Well I am going to go back to playing some CS Source, thanks for reading and please let me know if you enjoyed this blog at all it really means a lot.